i wish i can stay here long enough to pick up the australian accent



what is it that the australian or european accents are cool, and all the asian accents really hard on the ears? i think if i were to pick up the accent here like all the asian australians, it would make picking up girls a whole lot easier back in the US.



yesterday, my feet and my back didn't feel quite up to par. it felt actually pretty bad. so i didn't really get around to do much. walked around for a bit, took the monorail, but rested the majority of the day. at night, we met up with chuck, john-o, diam at this place called golden century. it is the best chinese seafood restaurant in sydney. the food was really good and fresh. along the walls of the restaurant are fishtanks with crabs, fish, lobster, etc. and whatever you order, they take it right out of the fish tanks and then put it on a scale. who knows if they just take the fish to the back and swap it with the ones in the freezers like they do it in the movies that make fun of these kinds of restaurants. i tought one amusing thing was that the small clams were called pippis/pippys (pronounce pee-pees). when we asked them why they were called pippys, they said, "i dunno, why is the crab called the crab?" i guess they really had no idea what we were referring to.



i found a gym here that had a very limited selection of exercise machines and some dumb bells. everything in metric...blah. i was able to get a workout in with what they had which is good because it is always hard to come back to a gym after a week off.



today, i met up with ruth and she showed me around sydney. we went to st mary's cathedral, got lunch at the rocks cafe, walked to the opera house, then to the botanic gardens, then walked along the harbor to wooloomooloo. got a beef pie at this place called harry's cafe de wheels. there isn't a person in sydney that hasn't heard about that place i bet. they are famous for their pies and hot dogs. the beef pie was pretty good, and supposedly the reason people like them so much is that it is the place to go when you're starving after a night out since it is open 24 hours.



sydney, much like new york, is a city that never sleeps. i'm not a big night life person, but i'm a night owl. its 12:45am here and I could probably step out and find a place that will squeeze me a large glass of fresh orange juice. i guess i never really visited places like orange julius when i'm in the US, but the fresh juice bars are abundant here and for some reason i find myself ordering a glass of OJ at every opportunity that i have here. i wish fresh juices were as common in SD as they are here. i would definitely be able to get my 8-10 servings of fresh fruit and vegetables daily unlike the norm when i get about 5 servings every other day when i remember to.



i'm not sure what's causing all this inflammation on my back...it could be the stiff matress (i miss my tempurpedic...yes...i've taken it for granted), but i'm going to try to find a acupuncture place tomorrow. i found one, but i was told that the acupuncturist had left for china and won't be back till the end of the month. acupuncture i think is exactly what i need. i knew my luck was going to run out eventually. i'll have to look more tomorrow but all these places look kinda to severly grungy. somewhere i wouldn't want to go for anything involving needles of any sort.



after my 4 hour trip across sydney, i came back home and crashed. ray came back from work, and we got dinner at this sushi place at makoto. not sure if i've seen a place like this other than on TV, but it seems like a lot of the sushi places have the sushi trains. the sushi rotates around the bar as you eat, and you just pick out the items as they go by. you get charged based on the number and the color of the plates. the food was great and probably fresher than any sushi i've had in the US. cheap too. its almost unfair that we don't have anything like that in san diego. after dinner, we went to this pub that used to be a bank. the pub has 4 floors, all with slightly different themes. the first floor has a club/sports bar atmosphere. the second floor has a band stage and a few pool tables. the upper levels are much quieter.



so tomorrow, i'm going to try to get some acupuncture for my back. buy a pair of pants since the party we're going to is kinda up scale and jeans will look out of place according to the people who are throwing it. i need to try to make it to manly beach...i'll have time on friday, but i also want to rest up for the tour we're doing at blue mountain. we'll be checking out the jeanolan caves, which will be an all day event. hmmmm...decisions decisions. if acupuncture goes well i should be able to do both no problem as long as the blisters on my toes stop bothering me. after the cave tour, we're supposed to go watch some rugby at john-o's parents place. i do have the option to play poker instead, but eh whatevers. they probably won't be even playing for money since i'll be playing with the church group. it would be nice to say i've played poker in australia. but i think i'll probably have to pass. ;)